We managed to land an interview with Felipe Coimbra, the mind behind twtapps. In the past we’ve written about twtvite and twtpoll, but there are many more apps out there. He’s currently enlisted himself in a “1 year, no job” project, described here. Our questions are in bold, and his responses follow each question.

How did you settle on developing tools for Twitter (versus another platform)?

I started developing twtapps to test out different marketing strategies for another project I was working on. So, my idea was to come up something simple (that already exists) and apply it to Twitter, then track how people would use it and if they would recommend it to their followers. Twitter is the perfect platform for viral marketing, which can be bad too if you don’t have a good product/service. But if you can come up with something people like, they will do their best to tell as many people as they can. So, after I did the first twtapp, other ideas came up and I kept doing them (it’s been 1 month and 6 twitter apps).

Where do you come up with all of these ideas?

I went through a directory listing and wrote down every possible categories (Advertisement, Calendar, Q&A, Invites, Travel, etc), then I went one by one and tried to think about the simplest way to do something that involved them on Twitter. I circled the ones I was most interested in. It had to be something that would be done in one simple form and that people would want to share with somebody else. So, I start going down the list.

How long does the average tool take you to build?

Usually it takes 1 day, sometimes 2 for the basic functionalities. I then add details as I see the way people interact with it and/or as they suggest new functionalities.

Will you ever stop building twtapps?

Yes, probably, for a while at least. I have 5 other apps that I want to work on, but I have also been working on a larger project, which will take most of my time and focus, so I might not be able to keep doing them for very long. And when I add new apps, there’s the maintenance, support, enhancement that comes with each one.

You say these apps will always be free; do you have any plans to make any money from Twitter tools you may build in the future?

I plan to use some of these twtapps as marketing tools to funnel potential users and businesses to related services to them. For example, I’m building a travel social network, so I’m going to leverage twtTRIP (Twitter travel organizer) to market this social network on Twitter. Another potential for making money is if Twitter continues to experience the growth they did last year, any app with a large user base could be sought out for acquisition. But I still believe the best use for these apps is as marketing tools for a complimentary service.

How has microblogging impacted your life/career?

I use Twitter to follow interesting things people I know are doing and as a way to meet new people, mainly through events. I’m not what you would consider a Twitter power user. I don’t know if it has necessarily changed the way I do things, but it has definitely added to it.

How does usage thus far meet, exceed, or fail to meet your expectations?

Two of my apps (twtpoll and twtvite) were featured on TechCrunch on the day they were launched, so their results exceeded my expectations. But, for example, I thought twtpets was going to get more usage than it has. I didn’t think twtcard was going to get any usage at all… and I’m a big travel enthusiast so TwtTRIP is my favorite, but it hasn’t been the one most used (although I am happy with the results).

Can you give us some usage statistics?

The number of new items per day for each app (as of January 23, 2009):

• twtpoll – 110
• twtvite – 33
• twtpets – 8
• twtwlst – 3

View all here.

What does the future hold for twtapps?

I have quite a few other apps I still want to work on. The kinds of sites I like the most are sites where you can physically do something, so I’m trying to build as many twtapps like that as possible. For example: twtvite, you organize events and you go and meet people for something; TwtTRIP, you share your travel plans and you meet people who are also traveling to do something. So, I have 3 apps that involves real-world interaction and 2 online games that are next in the pipeline.

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